1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a ceiling-mounted electric component assembly consisting of a molded ceiling which is fastened to the ceiling mainly of an automobile body, and various electric components and their electric wires integrally mounted on the molded ceiling.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, as shown in FIG. 16, on the ceiling R of a vehicle such as an automobile, there are installed a lighting unit a such as a room lamp unit, spotlight unit or the like and its electric wiring (roof wiring harness) b.
The conventional roof wiring harness b, as shown in FIG. 17, consists of a plurality of electric wires bundled with a tape and provided with branches d, a plurality of clamps c for fixing the wiring harness, and connectors e attached at ends of the branches d, the connectors being coupled to connectors (not shown) of the lighting unit a and to a connector at the end of a vehicle body side wiring harness.
To assemble the roof wiring harness b to the ceiling R, the former is first fixed to the latter with the clamps c, followed by mounting a molded ceiling f. The molded ceiling f has a plurality of mounting holes g through which the connectors e are passed in advance. After the connectors e are connected to the lighting units a, the lighting units a are fixed tough the mounting holes g to the vehicle body with bolts and covered with lamp covers h.
The assembling of the roof wiring harness b thus requires many steps, and especially the fixing by means of the clamps c--which need to be provided at many positions for preventing noises due to vibration--requires troublesome work and many manhours, resulting in a hinder to the improvement in productivity.
Under such conditions, a proposal is made in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Specification No. Hei 2-124344 according to which, as shown in FIG. 18, a flat wiring harness j with a flat wiring pattern is mounted on a molded ceiling f to simplify the electric wiring at the ceiling of a vehicle.
Further, another proposal is made in Japanese patent Application Laid-Open Specification No. Hei 2-124345 according to which, as shown in FIG. 19, a molded ceiling assembly n is provided, with a roof wiring harness k and an electric component m attached to an end of the harness integrally molded and fixed therein, and the molded ceiling assembly n is assembled on a vehicle body.
With the flat wiring harness j as shown in FIG. 18, however, in case different kinds of electric components are mounted on the molded ceiling f, many kinds of flat wiring harnesses j need to be correspondingly provided, adversely resulting in an increase in the number of parts and trouble-some management thereof. Likewise, with the molded ceiling assembly n as shown in FIG. 19, in case different kinds of electric components are mounted, many kinds of molded ceiling assemblies n need to be prepared and stored, adversely resulting in troublesome management and in a hinder to the improvement in productivity as a whole.